1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the identification of form documents. In particular, the invention provides a method for identifying form documents through received data.
2. Description of Related Art
Automatic forms processing systems utilize computer hardware and software to scan forms, identify the form being processed and extract information from the form. Form identification is an essential step in the processing of forms. It represents the ability of the system to automatically select the correct computer-stored form template, which is used to process the current form. Existing forms processing systems utilize graphic information present on the scanned form to identify the computer-stored form template (form template). Such information may include lines and graphics, blocks of text on the form template, special symbols and form identification numbers.
Some form processing systems receive data apart from the form, although a form may have been used to assist in entering data. With these form-processing systems, only the graphic data entered by the user such as name, address and marked choices is electronically transferred to the forms processing system. Thus, none of the graphic features specific to the design of the processed form are available for form identification. A process described below is utilized to identify the form template, in one embodiment, by relying exclusively on the locations of fields filled in by the user. [In another embodiment, the probable content type of those fields is used to determine the form template.]